Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Huckabee's Brilliant Dodge

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee was asked by George Stephanopolous whether or not Mitt Romney was a Christian. Huckabee dodged brilliantly, saying that no one can make that call for anyone else, and that's up to Mitt Romney to say. This did three things at once:

1) It made Huckabee look oh so kind by refusing to speak negatively about someone else, and oh so tolerant by appearing to grant legitimacy to religion views.

2) In fact, his answer screams "Don't vote for this guy, he's not a Christian" to the Religious Right Huckabee is courting. They know were Romney a Christian Huckabee would say so.

Of course, the seriously bad side to this, and the Bible question in the last debate as well, is that it is treading awfully close to a de facto religious test for office. We not only aren't supposed to have such a thing in this country, but we are supposed to believe in the irrelevancy of religion when it comes to civic matters. This is a core American principle that those touting "traditional values" have led the way in destroying. America was founded on the attitude "If the law allows what my religion forbids, I will abide by my religious limits anyway, because that is what I believe", not "If the law allows what my religion forbids, I will change the law, because that is the way everyone should believe." Those who think the President should be a Christian are being more unAmerican that 40 flag burners.

About Me

I have a mathematics background, an interest in science, and an unapologetic impatience for sloppy thinking. This puts me at odds with both right and left. It's high time the rational scientific viewpoint got the rabid proponent it deserves. I fight nonsense so the scientists don't have to. The blog is not necessarily about science, but rather is a scientific view of the world. Rational, civilly expressed, factually supported thought-out opposing views are welcome. Disparaging, irrational, intentionally obtuse, troll-like whack-a-mole, quote-mining posts will be dispatched without hesitation or apology, as will tit-for-tat partisan "the other side does it too" political gamesmanship, and opinions of what topics I should be writing about. We don't do that here.